1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method, system and program product for filtering an entry of data items such as a user profile. Specifically, under the present invention a profile of data items associated with a target user is filtered based on a profile of data items associated with another user.
2. Background Art
In the course of their daily lives, people make frequent connections to one another for various reasons. For example, connections are often made to obtain information, advice, or approval. Moreover, many connections are made for networking purposes. The explosion of computer technology has dramatically helped foster forming connections that were not previously likely. In many cases, people seeking to make connections today will utilize data items (information) contained within a user profile. To this extent, various systems exist for maintaining and providing access to user profiles. One example of such a system is Lotus Discovery Server, which is commercially available from International Business Machines of Armonk, N.Y.
To date, the quality of a profile has been judged based on the quantity of data items contained therein. The thought has been that the more data items available in a profile, the better a connection-seeking user will be able to judge whether a connection is appropriate. Unfortunately, more information comes at the cost of introducing noise and information overload. Specifically, the connection-seeking user must observe and/or review all of the data items in the profile. Such a requirement can take considerable time and be tedious to the connection-seeking user.
Although various search-based systems exist for allowing a user to form a specifically crafted query so as to return only relevant “hits,” such systems are both error-prone and tedious. Specifically, the searching user must often anticipate the type of terminology/language used in the body of information being searched, and then craft a query that should return the appropriate information. However, such a process is typically wrought with inaccurate queries and irrelevant “hits.”
In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for a method, system and program product for filtering an entry of data items such as a user profile. Specifically, a need exists for a system that can filter the data items in a profile of a target user based on the data items in the profile of the querying user so that only relevant information is returned to the querying user.